EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn.—It’s not that Minnesota Vikings coach Leslie Frazier doubted Adrian Peterson, per se. But Frazier had torn his own anterior cruciate ligament while returning a punt for the Bears in Super Bowl XX. And he never played again.

Oh sure, Frazier knew Peterson would return. We all did. More than a quarter century of progress in surgical and rehabilitation procedures wouldn’t leave a determined, focused athlete like Peterson on the sideline forever.

But returning wasn’t the only goal that Peterson expressed not long after Redskins safety DeJon Gomes knifed in and blew up Peterson’s left knee on a hit during the Vikings’ win at FedEx Field last Christmas Eve. With his anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments shredded, Peterson made two promises:

1. To play in the Vikings’ Sept. 9 season opener against Jacksonville.

2. To be better than he was before the injury.

The first goal—to play less than 8½ months after surgery—seemed to stretch the imagination. Considering Peterson’s violent running style, which depends on him making sharp, powerful cuts with defenders diving at his knees, the more likely scenario was Peterson starting the season on the physically unable to perform list.

The second goal? Well, that was pure fiction. Or science fiction. To come back better than a four-time All-Pro first-teamer? Better than the guy who set the NFL single-game rushing record (296 yards) as a rookie? Better than the Vikings’ single-season rushing record-holder (1,760)? Better than the best?

Yeah, right.

"I just wanted to temper his emotion," Frazier said. "I know how focused he can be and how great he has been at being able to name it and claim it. But I also knew there are a lot of guys, including myself, that had not come back from that injury and some who had come back weren't quite as good as they were before.

"So, I wanted him to approach it the right way, just like he wanted to approach it, but also let him know there was a lot of hard work ahead. Not that he couldn't achieve his goals, but there was a lot of hard work ahead. He understood that, and he hasn't blinked. Look at where he is now."

Dare we say it, but, yes, Adrian Peterson is better than he was before. He's also becoming a bona fide MVP candidate, having run for a league-high 1,600 yards while dragging a young, quarterback-challenged Vikings team that few expected to win more than six games to a 7-6 record and meaningful games in December.

Peterson is battling usual MVP suspects Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and four-time winner Peyton Manning, who also joins Peterson in the conversation for NFL Comeback Player of the Year. If he wins, Peterson would be the first running back to win the award since LaDainian Tomlinson in 2006 and the third Viking behind Alan Page (1971) and Fran Tarkenton (1975).

"I'm looking at some things that he's doing and he has improved,” Frazier said. “His hands are better. Some of his cuts, his burst, he's staying more true to his reads. These are some things that he hadn't done before his injury.

"He was always looking to hit the home run, and sometimes that would create negative plays. Now, he's truer to his reads and he's helping our offensive line be better at what they do.”

Running harder, faster and more patiently than ever before, Peterson is averaging a career-best 6.0 yards per carry. His 1,600 yards are more than the team total for 23 clubs and 334 more than any other individual.

He’s on pace for 1,969 yards, which would be the seventh-best total in NFL history. But Peterson has his sights on the league’s seventh 2,000-yard season.

“I think about it, but I don’t try to think about it too much,” Peterson said. “I feel like it will happen. It’s obvious we’re going to continue to run the ball.”

Peterson was asked about Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson’s record of 2,105 yards, set in 1984, the year before Peterson was born.

“That would be good, too,” Peterson said.

Reporters laughed. Peterson didn’t.

“I'm always looking up to 2,000, 2,500 yards,” Peterson said. “But I’ve made it real simple for myself. Go out and ball out every game. Go 100 percent with every opportunity I have and the work I've put in will show. That's all I do.”

To reach 2,000 yards, Peterson needs to average 133.3 yards over the final three games against the St. Louis Rams, Houston Texans and a Green Bay Packers team that he ran through for 210 yards—including a career-high 82-yard touchdown—in Week 13 at Lambeau Field. To reach 2,106, Peterson needs to average 168.7.

It seems unlikely, but at this point, nothing sounds absurd coming from Peterson’s mouth. Or that rebuilt left knee.

Peterson is riding a franchise-record streak of seven consecutive 100-yard games. In those seven games, he’s run for 1,101 yards, a 157.3-yard average and 139 yards more than struggling second-year quarterback Christian Ponder has passing the ball.

With Ponder in a slump and receiver Percy Harvin on injured reserve with an ankle injury, the Vikings simplified an already simple offensive approach heading into last Sunday’s game against a Bears team they had lost to at Chicago just 14 days earlier. Needing a victory to stay in the playoff race, the Vikings gave Peterson a career-high 31 carries.

The Vikings ran 15 plays in the first quarter. They handed off to Peterson 12 times. He responded with 104 yards, breaking the franchise record for an opening quarter that he set last month in Seattle (96). He also had two touchdowns and a 51-yard burst on the game’s first play from scrimmage. Peterson’s league-high 18th run of 20 yards or more would prove to be the tone-setter for the 21-14 win.

“It was the definition of starting fast,” Ponder said. “The guy is unbelievable. I don’t know if he is human or not.”

With an anemic passing attack that ranks last in the league, Peterson has carried the Vikings despite a weekly dose of mostly eight- and nine-man defensive fronts. Yet he relishes a stacked box, because it offers him the opportunity for long runs.

"Adrian is one of those guys who will always want to put the load on his shoulders,” tight end Kyle Rudolph said. “And I think Adrian can carry us as far as Adrian wants."

Peterson was asked how he does what he does against defenses whose only focus is to stop him. “It’s all willpower,” he said. “They pretty much know we’re going to run the ball.”

It’s become a sports cliché for athletes to talk about people doubting them. But in Peterson’s case, when it comes to that second goal—well, he’s right. Nobody believed that one.

“But through the midst of it, you only have to have one believer,” Peterson said. “And I definitely believed.”